Don’t Lock User Data Behind Paywalls

I have a pet peeve when it comes to apps with any kind of paywall. I appreciate developers need to earn a living and have no qualms paying for the hard work they put in or the resources that may be required. But there’s one thing that sometimes gets locked behind a paywall and it really pisses me off. Data export. Sorry, but this is a really dirty trick. Whatever data I put into the app is mine. Why should I have to pay to pull it back out again? We’re not talking about anything complex or fancy here, just a simple CSV, text file or similar. Yet sadly this often crops up as a premium feature. I find this often goes hand-in-hand with cloud sync. I pay Apple for my iCloud storage - I don’t expect to also pay random developers just to be able to use it. Most apps do offer cloud sync by default, so I’m really not impressed if it’s part of a subscription offering. Of course, if the app offers its own proprietary sync service then that’s perfectly justified. Locking these 2 “features”…